Some PlayStation 5 owners have been encountering a frustrating issue where their games get stuck in the download process without making any progress at all. Messages like a “Queued for Download” notice will appear to make it look as though things are working as intended, but the download is actually stuck. PlayStation has acknowledged these issues and has since provided a solution for the problem, though it’s not exactly a convenient one.
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PlayStation shared the workaround for the downloading issue via Twitter through its Ask PlayStation account after it apparently received enough questions about the topic to warrant a PSA. If you’re one of the people who has experienced this problem and needs a fix, you’re going to have to put your PlayStation 5 into Safe Mode and then rebuild your console’s database.
If you’ve experienced issues downloading games with “Queued for Download” or “View Details” messages on PS5, please update the system software to the latest version, start your PS5 in safe mode then rebuild the database. See “PS5:safe mode options” at https://t.co/BfgPSMafxd. pic.twitter.com/Vq7m0dXA23
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) November 19, 2020
For those who are unsure how to put the console into Safe Mode, the steps to do so are outlined below courtesy of PlayStation’s support page. After rebooting the console in Safe Mode, you’ll see a couple of different options available just as if you were starting up a PC in the same way. Select the “Rebuild Database” option to hopefully fix the issue. You’ll likely have to wait a while to finish the process, but you’ll at least get to keep your data.
Starting Your PlayStation 5 in Safe Mode
- Turn off your console by pressing the power button. The power indicator will blink for a few moments before turning off.
- Once the system is off, press and hold the power button again. Release it after you hear the second beep — one beep will sound when you first press, and another seven seconds later.
- Connect the controller with the USB cable and press the PS button on the controller.
This particular issue isn’t the only one PlayStation 5 owners have been reporting with their new consoles. Others have said that they’ve had issues with the console’s Rest Mode state which makes for a particularly frustrating situation since players will be using that so often when not actively playing their console. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has often been associated with reports of these Rest Mode issues, though other games have also come up in the reports as well.
